There are many different tools needed to prepare a crashed vehicle for patient extrication. Many times these tools become misplaced or lost at an emergency scene. Rifling through the tools can also be time consuming and might mean the difference between saving and losing a life. Some of these tools are also unreliable at times and this also causes a considerable problem when time is of the essence.
Motor vehicle windshields generally are made from glass and plastic laminates. The plastic laminates prevent the glass laminates, which may shatter in an accident, from flying apart and injuring the vehicle occupants.
The side and rear windows of the vehicle are usually made of tempered glass which shatters into small flakes.
In a motor vehicle accident, the driver and/or passengers is/are sometimes trapped inside the vehicle. In situations such as this, battery cables must be cut to protect the occupants of the vehicle from further injury from malfunctioning electrical systems. Frequently, patient extrication requires the removal of the vehicle top to evacuate and treat the injured driver and/or passengers. Before the vehicle top can be removed, the windshield and the side and rear windows frequently have to be removed and the seatbelts must be cut. Of course, during the process of window and top removal, occupants are covered, typically with protective blankets. Access to a trapped patient in a vehicle must be made with the least amount of movement of the vehicle possible to reduce the chance of further injury, particularly neck and spine injury, to the patient. When the patient's legs are trapped beneath the vehicle dashboard, the dash must be pushed up off of the legs so that the patient can be removed. In order for the hydraulic spreaders to properly grip the vehicle, the rubber and plastic linings of the door frame must be removed.
Tools frequently used by emergency medical personnel under such circumstances include axes, hay hooks, pneumatic hammers, glass saws, window punches, pry bars, cable cutters and seat belt cutters. These tools are used in collaboration to prepare the car for heavy rescue extrication. Many of these tools can be lost or misplaced on a chaotic emergency scene and using such a wide assortment of tools can take precious time. The axe is a rather crude tool for windshield removal. Care must be taken to prevent the axe head from entering the vehicle passenger compartment to reduce the risk of greater injury to the driver and front seat passenger. The force required to be exerted on the hay hook to remove the windshield tends to move the vehicle. As previously stated, moving the vehicle is risky and is to be avoided to reduce the risk of further neck/spine injury to the vehicle occupants. Air hammers can cause small glass fragments to fly around uncontrollably, placing not only the occupants, but also their rescuers at risk of further injury.
Many existing glass saws have an exposed blade that can put rescuers at risk of being cut when the saw is not being used, or when a spike on the saw is being used to start the cut and the exposed blade is facing the rescuer. The window punch often consists of a spring-loaded center punch that has questionable reliability, often with a malfunctioned spring mechanism. The window punch, seatbelt cutters, and cable cutters are also often very small and can be easily misplaced.